The present invention relates to a pouring spout for liquid containers with a ring-shaped upper part, which is insertable in the pouring opening or the pouring neck of a liquid container.
It is desirous to pour a liquid stream evenly when manually pouring liquid from containers to prevent the unwanted sloshing of the liquid. Bottles, canisters, Fassets®, barrels or similar containers are hereby considered as containers for temporary storage of liquids. A pouring with even liquid stream requires a proportionate venting of the container interior during the pouring process—in accordance with the discharged liquid volume. As a consequence of undefined streams of the discharged liquid or/and through “pumping” (=discontinuous breathing), the continuous venting is frequently interfered with, resulting in the uncontrolled sloshing of liquid.
The prior art to EP 0 677 445A1 discloses a container with venting channel for transport of liquids and having a venting pipe as integral part of the canister. This canister has, however, the drawback that is can be produced only with complicated tools and is subjected to substantial distortion as a consequence of widely different shrinkage strains. Other embodiments of conventional pouring spouts are described in the publications JP 63-229 670, EP 0 047757 as well as AT-PS 313092. They suffer shortcomings because a portion of the pouring spouts projects vertically into the opening of the liquid container and is significantly bent to the side. As a result, the liquid container requires a particular tilting angle until these systems can become effective. In particular during the initial phase, when a precise pouring stream should be realized, these systems are insufficient. Moreover, a machine-based insertion of such pouring spouts is complicated because the venting pipe is curved and therefore requires a deflection of the direction of insertion.
Another approach, proposed in the utility model DE 297 20 426 U1, has the drawback of requiring an additional lateral venting pipe, in particular when the opening of the liquid container has a greater diameter, in order to realize the desired effect.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved pouring spout for liquid containers which obviates prior art shortcomings and enables a steady venting of the container interior substantially independent from the tilting position of the container to thereby realize an even pouring of the liquid and which can also be placed by machine into the container opening in a very simple manner.